When thinking about the various ideologies within the texts we’ve read, I would argue that it’s important to recognize these ideologies (whether political, religious, social/class, etc.). While we don’t have to agree with them or even work to analyze what those ideologies are trying to tell us, I think that it’s important to acknowledge that they exist within a text and that they author was influenced by outside forces (political, social, etc.) which they chose to input into their work. To me, Elizabeth Barrett Browning seems to offer a perfect example of these ideologies at work, in her case political ideologies, in the poems she wrote for the abolitionist movements in the United States.
The one that I found so interesting was “A Curse for a Nation” especially since we are told by the editors of the collection that this work was printed first in The Liberty Bell, an anti-slavery annual. At that time, it was interpreted to be all about slavery and the injustices of slaveholding in the United States. However, when it was reprinted in a subsequent work of EBB, it was re-interpreted as being about the struggle for Italian independence. To me, this is a perfect example of how the context in which something is place can change one’s perception of that work. When this poem was included in an annual that focused on anti-slavery, it offered a critique of slavery, but when that framing is taken away, it is seen as something else.
This clearly relates to our upcoming discussion about political poetry. When I first was thinking about political poetry, I was thinking much more broadly. However, once I read EBB, I realized that while political does mean anything that relates to power and status, in the case of a lot of the poetry we’re reading, it does in fact relate to social and political/legislative/national change. However, I’ll save that for my writing on Monday.
When thinking about the various ideologies within the texts we’ve read, I would argue that it’s important to recognize these ideologies (whether political, religious, social/class, etc.). While we don’t have to agree with them or even work to analyze what those ideologies are trying to tell us, I think that it’s important to acknowledge that they exist within a text and that they author was influenced by outside forces (political, social, etc.) which they chose to input into their work. To me, Elizabeth Barrett Browning seems to offer a perfect example of these ideologies at work, in her case political ideologies, in the poems she wrote for the abolitionist movements in the United States.
The one that I found so interesting was “A Curse for a Nation” especially since we are told by the editors of the collection that this work was printed first in The Liberty Bell, an anti-slavery annual. At that time, it was interpreted to be all about slavery and the injustices of slaveholding in the United States. However, when it was reprinted in a subsequent work of EBB, it was re-interpreted as being about the struggle for Italian independence. To me, this is a perfect example of how the context in which something is place can change one’s perception of that work. When this poem was included in an annual that focused on anti-slavery, it offered a critique of slavery, but when that framing is taken away, it is seen as something else.
This clearly relates to our upcoming discussion about political poetry. When I first was thinking about political poetry, I was thinking much more broadly. However, once I read EBB, I realized that while political does mean anything that relates to power and status, in the case of a lot of the poetry we’re reading, it does in fact relate to social and political/legislative/national change. However, I’ll save that for my writing on Monday.